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March on Washington
The March on Washington was a march that was put together to protest for the economic and civil rights of African Americans. This march was when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech, “I Have a Dream”. -
Brown vs Board of Education
The Brown vs Board of Education decision was when the Supreme Court said that “separate but equal” was unfair and incorrect. Separate but equal was from Plessy vs Ferguson in 1896. This decision from Brown vs Board helped the Civil Rights movement tremendously. -
Rosa Parks Arrest
In Alabama, buses were segregated, with the first 10 rows being permanently reserved for white people only. Rosa Parks decided to sit in the very first row as an act of defiance to the unjust segregation laws, and got arrested for doing so. She ended up only being in jail for a few hours, when a civil rights activist, E. D. Nixon, bailed her out of jail. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
This bus boycott was in Alabama and was when people didn't ride public transportation. They organized other forms of transportation with each other so that no one felt like they needed to use public transportation. It ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. -
Little Rock 9
Little Rock Central High School was an all white high school, when 9 African American students decided to change that. They were named Little Rock nine, and were immediately taken out of the school when the police found out. -
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Sit-ins
Sit-ins were a very big part of the nonviolent protests going on at the time. Their goal was to just simply sit at a whites only counter to take up space and prove their point. -
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Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were people who rode interstate buses in the South, in mixed racial groups to go against people and laws that enforced segregation in public transportation and bus stops. Their goal was to help with the segregation in those two areas. -
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Birmingham Protests
The Birmingham Protests, also known as the Birmingham Campaign, were a series of protests that were led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (the SCLC). The goal was to desegregate public facilities, and this was one of the first big things that Martin Luther King Jr. did. -
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Mississippi Summer
Mississippi Summer was when people were trying really hard to get more African Americans to register to vote. It was mostly a small group of college students going around, trying to help people register. Later, those students were found in a dam, murdered. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of ‘64 banned discrimination about race, gender, religion, and nationality in public spaces. It helped increase African American job population because people were forced to stop discriminating in the workplace when hiring. -
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Selma Marches
The Selma Marches were three marches, along a highway from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery. The purpose was to make sure that African Americans could vote and to prove that the system was unjust, even if, on paper, it was the same for everyone. -
Voting Rights Act
President Johnson outlawed the discriminatory voting practices in the South. It banned literacy tests, poll taxes, and other similar things. -
MLK Assassination
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination happened in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel. He was standing on his balcony with Ralph Abernathy, the leader of the SCLC. He was in Tennessee to march for the sanitation workers' rights later that week. His death cause lots of violence and riots, and they never found the actual assassin, although James Earl Ray was the most probable suspect.